Bedtime Stories

Whilst cycling to work in the early hours of the morning, a young man found himself confronted by a chilling apparition near the dark waters of Trench Pool. What began as a single terrifying encounter soon escalated into something far more disturbing, as the figure continued to stalk him for weeks afterwards; a haunting presence he would come to know as The Wraith of Trench Pool. MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Vietnam War was a conflict defined by brutality and uncertainty. Dense jungle concealed ambushes, artillery shattered the night, and young soldiers were forced to fight an enemy they could rarely see. It was a war of exhaustion, paranoia and relentless fear. Yet for some who served there, the Viet Cong were not the only threat moving through the trees. In whispered accounts that surfaced years later, they spoke of another presence in those jungles; an enemy unexplained. MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We have previously examined three forested regions of the United Kingdom, each of which has become a focal point for reports of high strangeness. Cannock Chase brought with it accounts of shadowed figures, cryptids and unexplained encounters. Clapham Wood revealed whispers of spectral entities and deeply unsettling phenomena. Pembrey Forest, outwardly quiet and unassuming, carried its own catalogue of strange sights and unnerving experiences. Now, we turn to another woodland. A forest where reports do not centre on a single apparition or isolated creature, but on a bewildering array of entities, sightings and encounters, spanning generations. This time, we step into the darkness of Delamere. MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Throughout history, there are countless examples of places or objects said to bring suffering to those connected with them, earning a reputation for being cursed. In earlier episodes, we have explored several of these stories, from infamously unlucky motor vehicles to the final resting place of a convicted murderer. In this episode, we turn our attention to the preserved remains of an Ice Age hunter, a body some believe is linked to a series of unexplained deaths. Together, these events have come to be known as The Iceman’s Curse. MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some places sit quietly on the map, rarely drawing attention beyond those who live nearby. Others become known not for what happens there once, but for what keeps happening again and again; events that resist explanation, leave no clear record, and blur the line between history and testimony. In the mid twentieth century, a remote corner of Indonesia became the focus of a series of accounts that defied easy categorisation. Fishermen, villagers, and visiting outsiders all described encounters that did not fit local folklore, modern science, or conventional misunderstanding. What follows is not a single incident, but a pattern; fragmented, unsettling, and difficult to dismiss. MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He set off expecting nothing more than a long drive. A journey from Oregon to Florida, planned, ordinary, and uneventful. Somewhere along the way, however, Timothy Braddy disappeared. His truck would later be found parked beside a high school, undamaged and unlocked, as though he had stepped away briefly and never returned. There were no signs of violence, no clear reason for him to stop, and no trace of where he went next. What followed was not clarity, but silence. And with it, a question that still has no answer: how does someone simply vanish in plain sight? MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In late 2021, an ordinary man from the north of England reported two encounters that would alter the course of his life. The first took place in the early hours of the morning and left him questioning the nature of consciousness itself. The second occurred months later. Between those two events lay a period of illness so severe that doctors could not explain how he survived it at all. Whether these experiences were connected remains uncertain. But taken together, they form a deeply unsettling account of contact, consequence, and the possibility that some encounters are never meant to be remembered. MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When a thirteen-year-old boy growing up on a remote farm in Mexico takes part in what he believes is nothing more than a harmless game, he has no way of knowing what he is about to invite into his life. What begins as curiosity soon gives way to fear, as subtle changes take hold and the atmosphere within the household begins to shift. Over the following months, the boy’s family becomes convinced that something unnatural has attached itself to him, something that refuses to leave quietly. What follows is a disturbing descent into belief, desperation, and the terrifying idea that the greatest threat may come not from outside the home, but from within. MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most of us move through time without ever noticing it. Seconds pass, days accumulate, years slip quietly behind us. But on rare occasions, something appears to go wrong. A person finds themselves somewhere they do not belong, surrounded by a world that feels unfamiliar, faster, louder, and strangely hostile. In the winter of 1951, in the heart of New York City, witnesses reported seeing a man step into existence where no man had stood a moment before. Within minutes he was dead, but when investigators searched his body, it left them questioning not so much where he came from, but when. MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the great deserts of the American Southwest, people vanish with unsettling regularity. Some leave behind traces that hint at what happened. Others seem to step out of the world entirely, swallowed by a landscape vast enough to hide anything and quiet enough that no one hears it happen. But every so often, a disappearance leaves behind more questions than answers. A hiker known for pushing his limits. A cave he insisted held something unusual. A final journey that should have ended like all the others, yet never did. This is the story of Kenny Veach, and the place he never came back from. MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a previous episode, we explored several disturbing encounters involving a creature long feared within Navajo tradition; an entity said to move with unnatural speed, mimic familiar voices, and stalk the lonely highways of the American Southwest. Those stories were unsettling enough, yet they represent only a fraction of the reports that continue to emerge. In this episode, we return to the shadows once more, to examine a new collection of chilling encounters that are every bit as harrowing as the first. MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During the late 1970s, a fully laden DC-10 passenger jet crashed shortly after take-off, killing everyone on board. The disaster shocked the nation, prompting investigations, headlines, and a long search for answers. Yet in the days leading up to the tragedy, something quietly unsettling had been unfolding elsewhere. One man, living hundreds of miles away and with no connection to the flight, began experiencing a series of vivid, disturbing dreams. Only after the crash would he realise that what he had seen in his sleep was not imagination at all, but a chilling premonition. MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1955, a small silver sports car rolled out of a California garage and into American folklore. It was sleek, fast, and dangerous. A machine built for the racetrack. But within weeks, its young owner would be dead, and the car itself would become infamous. What followed were decades of bizarre accidents, unexplained fatalities, and eerie coincidences, all linked to the same deadly machine. Some now claim the car was cursed. Others insist the stories are nothing more than myth. In this episode, we examine the legend of James Dean’s Porsche… Little Bastard. MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1947, a cargo ship was discovered drifting aimlessly through calm waters in the Indian Ocean. When rescuers finally boarded, what they found defied all logic. Every member of the crew lay dead, sprawled across the decks, their eyes wide open, mouths frozen mid-scream. Yet the vessel itself showed no sign of fire, struggle, or damage of any kind. No wounds, no blood, no explanation. To this day, no one knows what truly happened or why every man aboard the Ourang Medan met his end in such terrifying silence. MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Throughout history, humankind has turned its gaze towards the heavens in search of mystery. Yet time and again, it is beneath the ground where the most enduring enigmas are found. Across every continent lie tales of ancient tunnels, lost chambers, and sealed structures that predate all known civilisation. One such story emerged from the mountains of wartime Slovakia, where a wounded soldier claimed to have uncovered something buried deep within the earth, its surface smooth as glass, hard as diamond, and impossible to explain. MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One night, while walking through the woods on the outskirts of her town, an elderly woman discovered what she thought was an abandoned infant lying in the dirt. She carried it home and resolved to raise it herself, but what began as an act of compassion would soon spiral into a mystery that left her community asking whether the baby Aleshenka was even human. MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1996, the quiet Brazilian town of Varginha became the centre of one of the strangest UFO cases in modern history. Nestled amongst the hills of Minas Gerais, its residents reported encounters with a bizarre, non-human creature, an event that would draw global attention, military involvement, and decades of speculation. Was it all an elaborate hoax to put this small town on the map, or did something truly extraordinary unfold in what would come to be known as The Alien of Varginha? MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Experience tells us there are certain professions in which people are far more likely to encounter the unexplained than others. As the many accounts featured on our sister podcast Wartime Stories clearly demonstrate, one such group is military personnel. But another, just as frequently, is the world of law enforcement, where officers across the globe have reported experiences that defy logic, reason, and training alike. In this episode, we’ll be exploring some of those accounts, cases in which those sworn to uphold the law found themselves policing the paranormal. MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the woods just east of Louisville, Kentucky, an old railway bridge cuts through the treeline. To many, it would appear no different to any other trestle found in the rural US. But locals believe that this particular overpass is guarded by a goat-like beast so disturbing that it causes those who see it to instantly run for their lives, or, in some cases, their deaths. For more than half a century, the bodies have continued to pile up with no end in sight, leaving people to wonder, what truly lurks in the shadows of Pope Lick Creek. MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1988, a new section of road was carved through the hills of the Peak District in Northern England. Built to divert heavy traffic away from the small town of Stocksbridge, the bypass was meant to bring relief. But almost from the start, strange reports began to surface from workers on the site - sightings of figures where no one should be, and unsettling incidents that defied explanation. In the years that followed, this stretch of highway became known not just for its hauntings, but for the unusually high number of lives it would go on to claim. MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices